Bordewich Interview – Podcast May 6, 2019

What Were The Founders Thinking?Democratic Perspective welcomes constitutional scholar and author Fergus Bordewich. To understand how we got to where we are, he says it’s important to understand the historical context of the constitutional convention and the First Congress. Bordewich says, at the time, the Articles of Confederation had completely broken down. The Constitution was designed by Federalists like James Madison who wanted a strong central government. But he says, “The Constitution is just a piece of paper. That’s all it is. It isn’t a government. It’s a set of ideas for a government. All of the machinery for government was created by Congress.”

Bordewich notes that context is particularly important to understand what the Founders intended with the 2nd Amendment. “They were debating 10 different kinds of issues all at the same time. And they were debating a militia bill,” he says. “They didn’t want a standing army. So the United States were going to be defended by militia, minutemen so to speak, who could be trained and called up – essentially forerunners of the National Guard. That meant that you needed a system. Who was going to be eligible? How were they going to be trained? How were they going to be called up? There was far more time given to discussing that than to the 2nd Amendment. There was no discussion whatsoever of this as a fundamental human right at all.”